Oracle Blog

Clive King's Weblog

Sunday Oct 05, 2008

It is good to see the Campus Ambassador program kicking off again. Last year was the 1st year, it was good and we learned a lot about running this type of program and personally in what is needed to be a good mentor (every day is a school day).

Ideally we would have coverage of every University in every country, a nice dream. What about the other Universities who don't have a Campus Ambassador? If you are at a UK University who does not have a Campus Ambassador, then don't despair(I doubt you were going to anyway). If you want to organize an visit(do the leg work of getting a critical mass of people in one place essentially), drop me a email and let us see if we can arrange an Solaris (DTrace/ZFS/whatever) session between us. The University of the Highlands and Islands this is a challenge to you, though Shetland and Orkney might be a struggle.

Thursday Dec 27, 2007

I have been a Sun OS Ambassador since 1999. Most of my focus has been to maintain the relationship Sun has with Universities in the UK, so I have taken the unofficial role of UK OS Ambassador for Education. I worked at a University in the role of Systems Administrator and as a researcher and doing some teaching, so it is a natural fit for me.
Its really good to see Universities at the top of Sun's corporate agenda again in a meaningful way. The most
visible activity which shows Sun is \*really\* serious about education again is the Campus Ambassador.
I thought it was worth listing the range of activities I have been involved as OS Ambassador since 1999 and if you are either a UK Campus Ambassador or work in a UK University and think that I might be of use, it would be a pleasure to help/pay you a visit or "get the right person" to help/pay you a visit.

Solaris technology demo. Has been DTrace, ZFS, Zones over the last few years, but a wider range is possible.

Our new system is slow/does not work and we can't get this issue resolved (yes, it does happen, though not very often and working in Service really helps on this one).

I don't know who else to talk to in Sun, I know you are not the right person, but can you find them.

We need someone independent to help us with Strategy Facilitation (I can do quite a good impression of a Management Consultant without any dress sense). Most of this is using techniques from the Kepner Tregoe Rational Process toolbox.

Student Mock Interviews and "how to prepare for interviews in industry" lectures.

Department Industrial Liaison boards.

Account team has a quick technical question and does not know where else to ask it.

Outside/Independent member of an interview panel.

UK OS Ambassador for Education is one of my hobbies, a bit like rock climbing, fell running or restoring a 1973 Muir-Hill A5000. Having a day job in Support Services means I only get to spend a day or 2 a month outside the support dungeon doing Ambassador type work.

If you work in a UK university and think any of the above might help you, drop me an email and I look forward to meeting you.